David,
You are absolutely right. BizTalk Framework started with the same general
requirements as ebXML/TRP including
1. Transport independence
2. Ability to carry arbitrary content
3. Reliable delivery
4. Message level security
Although early versions of BizTalk Framework were designed from scratch
without reference to SOAP, in the 2.0 version we were able to rebase the
framework completely to build on SOAP. In so far as XP plans to provide an
extensible protocol framework in the SOAP tradition, there is absolutely no
reason why we cannot use XP to build a protocol that fulfills the set of
requirements ebXML's transport/routing/packaging work is based on.
I don't think it is meaningful to talk in terms of "mission critical" vs
"non mission critical". What is mission critical obviously depends on the
mission. I can think of many missions for which a lightweight XML-based
protocol would be required and built on top of XP and ebXML/TRP would be
altogether a failure in that "mission critical" role. The point is that XP
enables a much wider class of mission critical protocols, whereas ebXML
focuses on a more specific B2B mission reflected in its specific
requirements.
Satish
-----Original Message-----
From: David E. Cleary [mailto:davec@progress.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 8:02 AM
To: Michael Champion; xml-dist-app@w3.org
Subject: RE: SOAP and ebXML
> I'm wondering if participants here agree with the notion that SOAP is for
> simple services and ebXML for mission critical transactions. If so, what
> about ebXML makes it more suitable for mission critical work?
> (Transaction
> processing support, maybe?)
I agree with the notion that ebXML is not appropriate for every uses case,
and that SOAP is a better choice for many applications. What I do not agree
with is that SOAP can not be the base upon which something such as ebXML
could be built. A perfect example of this is BizTalk. It has the same
requirements as ebXML, but is built on top of SOAP.
So, in conclusion, my point is that XP can be used for mission critical work
if you build the required services on top of it.
David Cleary
Progress Software